Between Two Firms is an interview series accompanying Economics@Work. We ask alumni speakers the candid questions students can’t ask in person. This week’s guest is Vikram Sarma, who currently works as the Senior Director of Marketing at The Clorox Company. A 2001 Economics and Political Science alumnus, Vikram talks about his undergraduate years, favorite courses, and how a well established company, like Clorox, innovates and adapts.
Q: How does it feel being back on campus speaking to students instead of sitting in the lecture hall listening to someone like yourself speak?
A: It is energizing and nerve wracking at the same time. Energizing because I get to learn from and feel the energy of curious people; nerve wracking because different generations have different pressures, needs and interests and I would only hope that something I’d share would appeal or be relevant across the generations since it has been 20 years since I’ve been in the classroom, but its healthy nerves. I actually learned a lot from the questions students asked today.
Q: What was your favorite econ class you took while enrolled at UofM?
A: It was a small game theory seminar with about 20 students in it. It was fascinating to think about the choice sets that different companies or governments could have and how they could affect people. The big take away for me was how much incentives matter for people. A big part of my work now is really understanding the incentives of the department of 40 people. Like how do I get people excited about the work that we do and how do I reward them fairly? A lot of the principles I learned in Game Theory were not only fun, but actually applied to what I do now.
Q: If you could create a mandatory class for every student to take what would it be?
A: I wouldn’t. I think part of the choice setting class is being able to Choose Your Own Adventure here and be able to follow their curiosities. What I would do is make mandatory certain experiences outside of the classroom in a world that is moving to be very technology driven I think keeping students aware of human realties as they go through academic experiences by creating like human centered learning with volunteering in hospitals, or running a program at a nursing home, or working in an IMAP like the business school does where you’re working with a company and dealing with their customers. I think those hands on things are more important collections of experiences than any once class. I think it would be a perfect complement to what happens in the classroom.
Q: What is one thing you wish you had more time to do while you were on campus before you graduated?
A: I honestly wish I spent a little more time auditing lectures and attending guest speakers. Because I was volunteering so much I didn’t always go to the hill auditorium speaker doing xyz or the economics in the real world speaker with the CEO from somewhere. The university offers so many and they’re really diverse like I remember last year walking on campus and seeing the CEO of Jamba Juice was here and I’ve read about his story and would have been awesome as a student to be exposed to something like that.
Q: Did you feel like your economics degree prepared you to get your MBA in comparison to people with BBA’s?
A: I felt incredibly great in terms of preparedness. I thought the program here at Michigan in particular that balances classroom homework and group projects created a medium of learning that were very similar, so adapting to the MBA program was not a problem. I think the other thing that really stood out in the preparation here was the caliber of the students and its diversity and most MBA programs are even more diverse in terms of life experiences and occupational experiences and being able to work through that was intimidating for a lot of folks who didn’t get that exposure in their undergrad days or their work experiences, and Michigan’s preparation for that is off the charts on that.
Q: What do you think was your greatest leap forward in your career?
A: I think the biggest jump for me was signing up for a role that most people were afraid of so when I talked about the chance to work for P&G directly with Target’s team and work directly with Target as a company, the role that I was moving into never existed before, and most people were like “why do we need that role, but it gave me an opportunity to create and deal with ambiguity of the situation and define what it could be and there were some moments where I was not sure where it was going and other moments where I could see lots of potential. It gave me a strong sense of self when I was able to define my own role. It was a big light bulb for me on what I need to look for in future jobs.
Q: How has your role at Clorox changed and how has the company changed since you began working there with the recent technological advances and the presence of social media in todays marketplace?
A: The company is constantly investing in winning with consumers and going where the consumer is, and what I’d say is over the last 5 years the marketing department has been a leader in this, and even won an award for being the most digitally savvy which we are really proud of. When you take a timeless brand like Clorox in 60% of households and find a way to continue to modernize how you connect with consumers, we take great pride in knowing consumers are going more and more online and we are finding ways to deliver them new products and benefits to do that. It all starts with the consumer for us, so social media is a component of it. Some brands have inherited value they can lean on, and we leaned into that where we can and where it makes sense for the consumer and the brand.